A Guide to Writing Notes

The Astranti Way!

By Nick Best

1. Introduction Our notes are aimed at being quick, simple, clear summaries of the key syllabus areas. Where possible they should be interesting and fun with a flowing relaxed writing style. They aim to guide a student through a model or method so they can quickly and easily understand that model. The aim is to be a halfway house between a full study text and very brief lecture notes. A study text is far too much detail and depth and not nearly enough focused on what you really need to know to pass the exam, while brief lecture notes, as you might get on a lecture course (e.g as per BPP or Kaplan notes) are designed to be brief, as the lecturer is there to expand on them. In our case the student needs to be able to read the notes and fully understand the material without the lecturers guidance. That last sentence is key. The ultimate decider on how good the notes are is whether the student has fully understood the point and could then go on to apply this in the exam.

2. Use of examples It is important that all theories are supported by examples as a way to enable the student to understand the model. In the Porters 5 forces analysis in the example notes shown later, you will notice examples used in two different ways firstly as examples of each of the types of issues under each force, and secondly as a single full example of the technique applied to a single industry to demonstrate its use. In numerical questions or where there are techniques examples are critical to student understanding. Examples should be broken down in a step by step manner, with each stage explained to the student. The example critical path analysis (see later) is a good example of this. Describing the rules and steps of a CPA alone do not really help a student understand the technique. Instead then, the technique is taught using an example and explaining how to do it in stages.

3. Diagrams Diagrams are very useful as a way to support students understanding, and critical when there is a model that needs to be explained that has a diagram as a standard part of it (e.g Ansoffs matrix, Mendelows matrix, Critical Path analysis). My suggestion is that any diagram is created in Powerpoint and the slide inserted into word, as this is by far the easiest way to create a good looking

diagram easily. This also has the advantage that the diagram can then be used in presentation slides at a later stage. As a general rule use a diagram if at all possible.

4. Relaxed, interesting and fun! The over-riding style of the notes should be relaxed, chatty and, dare I say it - fun. Notes need to be engaging as the content itself can be dull at times, so that needs to be overcome using fun, interesting examples, and a relaxed, chatty writing style. It still needs to be professional as well of course. Its quite a hard combination to get right, but when it does work it should help befriend the student whilst clearly teaching them complex ideas. The writing should flow well, so it is easy to read, and should be engaging too, which does mean trying to add a bit of personality to the writing.

5. Write simply, avoiding terminology Take care with all terminology used. Avoid it wherever possible, and where it is used clearly define the term in simple clear language. As you write, consider what a student reading this for the first time would think. Often terms that are common knowledge to qualified writers will not be familiar to new students. Its always best to assume you are writing to someone who have only a very basic understanding of business, and has only very average intelligence. That style should work for all students whatever their starting point. Readers should not need to have to re-read paragraphs a few times to get the idea of the points being made.

6. Paragraphs and Bullet points Most of our notes use longer style paragraphs keeping paragraphs relatively short with lots of sub-headings for each section. Bullet points are acceptable when items are best shown in list form, but do make sure that points are clear when bullet points are used. There can be a tendency not to give enough detailed description when bullet points are used. Bullet points are particularly good when setting out a list of key points a student needs to learn e.g. a list of advantages. It is important throughout

to continually keep in mind what the student needs to take away from the section for their exam, and bullet points can be a good way of doing this.

7. Formatting Our standard formatting must be adhered to throughout as this is the Astranti Style. That is as is used in this document:

Chapter headings 36 pt trebuchet using the Chapter Headings style, dark green, on a single page

1. Section headings 16pt trebuchet using the Heading 1 style, numbered, dark green followed by a line

Section sub-headings 14pt trebuchet using the Heading 2 style, followed by a line Sub-sub headings 12 pt trebuchet using the Heading 3 style, dark blue, followed by a dash and the text Text black, trebuchet 12pt normal style

8. Copyright issues All Astranti work should be original content. It is vital that we do not have copyright issues with other providers. Please feel free to use other online and book sources to research content, but also please ensure that the descriptions used are rewritten to be in your own words. If you use diagrams, you must create your own and not copy those you find online.

9. Spelling and grammar It is vital the spelling and grammar used is excellent. These notes need to give a highly professional image so please do spell and grammar check all your work. You should reread everything you write in order to ensure it is clear. If you have the opportunity to have someone else read it through for you, that can also be useful to give a final review for clarity and how well it reads.

Example chapters

Enterprise Strategy

Chapter 1

External analysis

1. External Analysis So, were aiming to create a good strong business strategy which is based on good, solid analysis. One element which we need to look at to do this is the companys external environment. Using our earlier analogy of developing a strategy as being like planning a car journey before we set off we might like to look at the routes environment to help us decide the best route. If theres been heavy snow recently, then perhaps wed be best to avoid our normal route over the nearby mountain pass! Or perhaps wed be best to avoid the city centre as were driving at rush hour. The same is true for business strategy - external analysis is undertaken to enable an understanding of how the external environment has or will change so that the opportunities and threats which may arise for the business can be assessed and appropriate action taken. That might mean spotting a new threat from a competitor, an opportunity for a new product or adapting to political or economic changes. There are a number of models which facilitate the external analysis, and these are outlined in the next sections.

2. PESTEL analysis The PESTEL analysis examines the broad environment in which the organisation is operating. PESTEL is a mnemonic which stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal. These are simply 6 key areas in which to consider how current and future changes will affect the business. Strategies can then be developed which address any potential opportunities and threats identified. There are various alternatives to this, the most common being the slightly simpler PEST analysis.

Political

Political factors are how and to what degree a government intervenes in the economy. Specifically, political factors include areas such as tax policy, labour law, environmental law, trade restrictions, tariffs, and political stability. Political factors may also include goods and services which the government wants to provide or be provided (merit goods) and those that the government does not want to be provided (demerit goods). Furthermore, governments have great influence on the health, education, and infrastructure of a nation

Economic

Economic factors include economic growth, interest rates, exchange rates and the inflation rate. These factors have major impacts on how businesses operate and make decisions. For example, interest rates affect a firm's cost of capital and therefore to what extent a business grows and expands. Exchange rates affect the costs of exporting goods and the supply and price of imported goods in an economy

Social

Social factors include the cultural aspects and include health consciousness, population growth rate, age distribution, career attitudes and emphasis on safety. Trends in social factors affect the demand for a company's products and how that company operates. For example, an aging population may imply a smaller and less-willing workforce (thus increasing the cost of labour). Furthermore, companies may change various management strategies to adapt to these social trends (such as recruiting older workers).

Technological

Technological factors include technological aspects such as R&D activity, automation, technology incentives and the rate of technological change. They can determine barriers to entry, minimum efficient production level and influence outsourcing decisions. Furthermore, technological shifts can affect costs, quality, and lead to innovation.

Environmental

Environmental factors include ecological and environmental aspects such as weather, climate, and climate change, which may especially affect industries such as tourism, farming, and insurance. Furthermore, growing awareness of the potential impacts of climate change is affecting how companies operate and the products they offer, both creating new markets and diminishing or destroying existing ones.

Legal

Legal factors include discrimination law, consumer law, employment law, and health and safety law. These factors can affect how a company operates, its costs, and the demand for its products.

3. Porters Five Forces Porters five forces model is used to understand the industry/market which the business is operating within. It can be used:

To understand how profitable an industry is to be in which can be used to decide whether to enter or exit the market.

By firms operating in that industry to understand the forces impacting upon industry profitability and change how they operate to become more profitable themselves.

CompetitiveRivalry

New

Entrants

Buyer Power

Substitutes

Supplier Power

Each of the forces is analysed to find the size of the force. If on balance the forces are high, the industry profitability is low, and the market would not be a good one to enter. If the forces on balance are low, it is a profitable industry and a good one to enter. The forces are as follows:

Competitive Rivalry

The force will be high and the industry less profitable when:

There are a lot of competitors

There is little difference between the products

Competitors are strong (i.e. big, have financial support, economies of scale)

There are exit barriers (e.g. high cost of leaving a market). The keeps competitors in a market they might otherwise leave.

Competitor analysis - Competitors can be analysed by asking the following questions:

What are their objectives?

What are their strategies? (e.g. cost leadership, differentiation, market penetration, product development etc. - see chapter 5)

What are their strengths and weaknesses? (Considering the nine Ms or value chain of competitors - see chapter 4)

How will they react to our offensive moves (e.g. price cuts)?

What threats do they pose? Ultimately through understanding the competition the company can define a strategy which will enable them to address any potential threats they may pose and take advantage of any weaknesses to ensure the company continues to be profitable. Competitor intelligence (gaining information about competitors) and acting upon this is therefore a vital way to remain profitable in a competitive environment.

Threat of new entrants

This relates to new companies entering the market that are not currently there. The force will be high and the industry less profitable when:

New companies can easily enter the market

New companies are likely to or intend to enter the market It is harder to enter the market when there are significant barriers to entry (factors which prevent new companies entering the market). These can include:

High costs of entry (e.g. production facilities, IT)

Patents

Customer contracts in place

Cost advantages of existing competitors are significant (e.g. due to scale of operation)

Strong brands amongst competitors

Buyer Power

This is the power that the customers have over the competitors in the industry. The force is high and industry less profitable when:

Customers are large and provide a large proportion of company profits

Customers can switch between competitors easily

Supplier Power

Supplier power is the power of the suppliers in the industry. It is high and the industry less profitable when:

There are few alternative suppliers.

Cost of changing suppliers is high.

Substitutes

Substitutes are products which fulfil the same needs as the needs met by the product in the industry being examined. A substitute of cinema might be the theatre, DVDs, sport or other forms of entertainment. Where customers can have there needs met from many different types of products, it becomes easy for them to switch, if prices rise for instance. This makes profitability in the industry low.

Example European airline industry

Industry information

Historically the industry has been dominated by many large airlines. In Europe, a number of major European airlines are mainly or partly state owned operations which receive Government subsidies. The availability of landing and take-off slots is controlled and constrained. There have been a significant number of new entrants over recent years, primarily in the Low cost end of the market, offering a low price and no frills flights. A number of the larger airlines have followed suit and set up their own low cost subsidiaries. The industry is also aware that they must also compete with other forms of transport such as rail, bus and cars. Airline manufacturers are small in number and very large, operating on a global basis. While the long term industry trend is one of growth, there has been a recent slump in

passenger numbers. Purchasing is increasing done over the internet which allows quick and easy ordering and price comparisons by consumers.

Porters Five Forces Analysis

Competition - High Significant competition. Some very large companies, some of which have subsidies. Exit costs are very high (e.g. selling aircraft/ending leases). There is significant price competition. Threat of new entrants - Low Barriers to entry include: lack of availability of new subsidies, difficulties in getting new routes, high costs of entry. Barriers are significant therefore, and given the significant competition that already exists it is unlikely that new entrants will be tempted to enter the market now. Buyer power - Medium There are few significant sized customers, but customers can switch between companies very easily. There is very little difference between products to stop switching. The internet has made it increasing easy to compare prices. Substitutes - Medium There are significant numbers of substitutes, car, rail, bus, ferry, but these offer a much slower form of transport, and are totally impractical for very long distances. Video conferencing might be more of a substitute for long distance flights. Supplier power - Medium Routes are restricted - giving significant power to the authorities allocating routes. Few aircraft suppliers, although there is significant competition between them. Aircraft can also be purchased second-hand. Other supplies - relatively low supplier power Overall Profitability is therefore relatively low, particularly due to the high industry competition.

Example Section from Project Management

Notes

Critical Path Analysis

4. Network analysis/Critical Path Analysis

Introduction

Network analysis is a technique used to plan and sequence the different tasks which must be undertaken in the project. This ensures that projects are thought through and organised in the most efficient way. Network analysis is particularly good at identifying the critical tasks - those which need to be completed on time to avoid the project being delayed.

Notation for drawing a network diagram

Network analysis is a technique used to plan and sequence the different tasks which must be undertaken in the project. This ensures that projects are thought through and organised in the most efficient way. Network analysis is particularly good at identifying the critical tasks - those which need to be completed on time to avoid the project being delayed. Key notation is as follows:

Events - The start or end of an activity. The notation used for an event is: Activities - Activities are shown as an arrow joining two events. ACTIVITY NAME/NUMBER EXPECTED DURATION

Steps in drawing a network diagram The following example will be used to work through a network diagram: Activity Duration

(weeks) Preceded by

A 3 - B 4 - C 2 A D 6 C E 2 B F 14 D G 7 E,F

The activity is the task to be undertaken, duration how long it will take and preceded by means that when something must finish first before the next activity can happen. For a house build, the foundations must be built before the walls begin. In this example, in the row for C, notice that activity A must finish before activity C can start. The steps in drawing a network diagram are as follows:

Step 1 Draw in the first event and first activity

The starting event goes on the left hand side of the page. Draw this in and put a 0 in the top right hand quadrant signifying we start at time 0. Next draw the first activity as an arrow going out from that event. In this case the first activity is A and it is duration of 3. Label the activity and the duration underneath the activity. At the end of every activity is another event. Draw that in.

Next calculate the Earliest Event Time (EET). This is the earliest time we can get to that point in the project. Since the first activity starts at 0 and it is 3 in duration, the earliest we can get to that point is time 3.

Step 2 Continue through the diagram with the remaining activities

Notice that the second event does not need to be preceded by any other events (the in the question) meaning this also comes out of the first event.

Event C however must be preceded by A, and so this comes out of the event at the end of activity A. Activity D, must be preceded by C, so comes out at the end of that event, and so on Notice that the earliest event time is calculated as we progress through the diagram by adding the time of the previous event to the duration of the new event. For example activity E is 4 + 2 = 6. When we get to G, we have a problem! Both E and F must be finished before G can start. It is a rule that an activity can only come out of one event. The one to pick is that with the highest number for the Earliest Event Time here we have a choice between the end of E, with 6, and end of F, with 25. Obviously F is higher so G is drawn out of the end of F.

To show that E must also finish before G can start a dotted arrow is drawn to the event at the start of G. This is called a dummy activity as it does not represent a real task to be undertaken its just there to ensure the diagram makes sense.

Step 3 Draw your diagram out neatly

It is common at this stage for complex diagrams to be very messy! Dont even try to do them neatly until you get to this stage. Since you know what the diagram will look like overall, you should now copy it out neatly.

As you draw out the diagram, ensure you follow the following rules:

There must be no loops or crossed lines

No two activities may share the same head and tail event. i.e. the following is not allowed

The must be only one Start event on the left hand side of the diagram.

There must be only one End event on the right hand side of the diagram.

Step 4 Complete the event number

Each event is numbered, in the left hand half of the circle. Starting at the left hand side of the page number the events in order of earliest to latest.

Step 5 Calculate the latest event time (LET)

Starting on the right hand side of the diagram, we now calculate the latest event time (LET) which is the number in the right hand lower segment. This number is always the same as the Earliest Event time for that event. In our example on the right hand side we have a number of 32, so we just put that in both quadrants.

Then we work back through the diagram from right to left taking off the duration of the activity. So we start with G, and take off 7 from 32 to get 25. Next take off 14 from 25 for activity F to get to 11 and so on. A dummy activity is duration 0, so 25 0 = 25 for the activity at the end of E. When there are two possibilities like event 1, you always take the lower of the two options. In this case for A we have 4 4= 0 or for B, 23 - 4 = 19. The lower is 0, so thats the one we pick! The latest event time (LET) is the latest point we can reach that stage in the project and the whole project not be delayed. So for instance if we get to the end of activity C where the LET is 5, and it was already day 6, then the whole project will be delayed. It is a key target for project managers. We can now see anywhere in the diagram that there is slack, which is spare time. This is where the EET and LET are different. In the diagram you can see there is slack of 25 6 = 19 weeks. This means that there is no rush to complete activity E as there is a lot of slack time.

Step 6 Label the critical path The critical activities are those where there is no slack, for instance, activities, A and C. The EET and LET are the same for these activities. These are key activities, which, as there is no slack, will be a key focus for the project manager who will monitor them closely and use their best staff for to make sure they are not delayed. If any of these activities are delayed the whole project will be delayed! All the activities where the EET = LET are on what is known at the critical path which we identify and label.

Our diagram is now complete!

Example for you try

Draw the network diagram for the following, identifying the critical path: Activity Description Duration

(weeks) Preceded by

A Plan 2 - B Get resources 3 - C Design 2 A ,B D Build 4 B E Review 5 C F Pay suppliers 4 D The solution is over the page

Solution